I just had better than Sdnative who appeared to have a hand full of probes.

I think I had one Assault the whole match that I drew at the end.

However, it was the airstrike on his right at the start of the game that crippled him there and left him unable to make good progress.

Salute to your well played game vV!
It was the Airstrike as the first card played that did cripple me and a few crack shots that knocked out some of my units in one roll plus the Ambush,Counterattack and The Finest Hour that just dealt me the death blow.
Well timed and played.

Andre', I can't get the replay to go past turn 11 either. I've had that problem in the past also. I'm pretty sure it's just SFTF. Too bad, what a great battle. It was 4-4 at the time it froze and I was really interested to see how it ended.

Interesting that it stops when it gets to full daylight.
Is that a symptom?

I was writing in the more general that replay works in most SFTF battles that I have tried it with.

I saw the same problem 1 time before: it was like here,the turn just before the BEL card was played and a unit managed to exit the board... Maybe there is a pattern here...

Eric, Artimon played the BEL at turn 11,reducing my left AT unit to 2 fig,and exiting. 5 to 4. Then I move my armor on the right. Then he played airpower,killing my AT and 1 arty fig,which also retreated. 6 to 4. Then it was an armor battle on my right. I managed to kill one,before he finished one of mine... 7 to 5.

Already 2 losses team... I count on you to do better than Trentdep and me . Do not let them go through our lines anymore !
Good luck team!

It was a great battle, but I didn't manage to roll enough dice for the win (69 vs. 84 for Eric). He won in the infantry department (19 figures won [54% hit rate] vs. my 8 figures [36% hit rate]).
Eric played well and deserved the win. The scenario is another master-piece, as it has been said.

I hope JayKay2010 and sdnative can perform better against the Rats and save the day!

The troops have upheld your faith in them after 2 stinging defeats. It was a hard fought battle that seemed to last forever(33 turns!). The Allies prevailed 7-5. Below is the battle report. My opponent manuevered his troops magnificently. It was reported that I was up against the Desert Fox.

By the way, Clorofila and I played the rematch game and it was better than the first(41 turns!!). All flanks experienced heavy fighting. Weakened units on both sides were sent reinforcements. It came down to the Allies needing 1 hit with 2 dice on a single infantry or a single hit with two dice on a lone artillery unit. However, all the shots went wide and the Allies finished off a lone inf. for a 7-6 victory.

Under the guise of a very slow dawn (some mist too I think) I played aggressively on my right, sometimes just hoping the cards would come. And it worked. I scored 6 out of 7 points there including one armor unit escaping of the board in the last turn.

On the left I did encounter the enemy but littered the field with one fig units. Two one fig armor units and one one fig infantry unit. Ironically I killed the full three figure armor unit for the win.

sdnative was hampered by bad dice (inf: 40% v 55%, armor: 33% v 43%) and because he spotted my ambush early in the game. After he spotted it he certainly did not come close which took away one card for me, but because he held close assault that robbed him of a card too.

the british attack on the right flank is a failure but is compensated by an infantery attack on the left flank successful !
the difference at the end is only a barrage card . The best card at this moment , otherwise the winner would be Jim with his panzers .

Luc didn't have a chance, despite his nickname: good card for Axis in the early stage (3 Assault cards), great dice too throughout the entire match.
Check this out: lucky91 rolled 49 dice vs. armor, scoring 12 hits (24%); I rolled 27 and scored 13 hits (48%)! Infantry rolls were much more balanced.
With Axis rolling a total of 78 dice vs. 56 by the Allies, the game was basically a slaughter.
That's a shame, since Luc is a good player and a gentleman too, deserving more balanced challenges.

Anyway, Axis manage to take the 1st victory after the disaster of the last scenario. Hopefully, more will come!

The Axis will not take a total victory this round, I managed to run away!
Trentdep v Jeronimon: Medals 5-8 (fig: 19-17 dice 59 v 35 percentages: see below)

And when I say run away I mean just that. It was a fighting retreat all the way.
I just played on my right flank and retreated all infantries except one, which fought valiantly with the two armor units against the germans. In the end Trentdep destroyed my two armor units on that side and the infantry that stayed behind, but I killed three armor units and two infantries with very good dice against Trent's not good dice.

rearranging one infantry from the middle to then right side. And two infantry assaults were sufficient to exit four infantries. I only needed three because of lucky dice on an armor unit in the turn before that.

Good cards (to run for it) and even better dice decide this battle. See the percentages for yourself:

I would have to agree with Clorofila that this is not the best LooneyLlama scenario. Very many units offer very many choices, but the terrain is not as restrictive as usual in a LooneyLlama scenario. So its a run around (or away) shoot em up slugfest most of the time.

I can confirm now that the replays do not handle exiting units very well. The replay does not freeze on our replay, but it stops counting medals.

Sorry Trent, it was not a very exciting or long match. Hope we can have a better experience next time.

I am sorry to report that we have suffered a serious defeat at Kassarine. The initial surprise of the attack was countered by an orderly withdrawl of the troops. Those units that were covering the withdrawl fought admirably. However, our attacks on the enemy armor proved futile. It seems the new German Tiger tanks are impervious to our caliber of ordnance (9 hits out of 45 dice). Please relay this information on to General Eisenhower.

It is with regret that I inform you Kasserine Pass could not be held by the Llama. The not showing up of the promised reinforcements might have something to do with that. And the cardboard anti tank shells did not help either.

But we will endeavour to persevere,

Greetings from the front,

Leader of the mediterranean Armed Forces
Colonel Jeronimon

Eisenhower: a Llama?!
I knew we trained and used dogs and dolphins, but Llama's?
It's madness I say.

The Axis will not take a total victory this round, I managed to run away!
Trentdep v Jeronimon: Medals 5-8 (fig: 19-17 dice 59 v 35 percentages: see below)

And when I say run away I mean just that. It was a fighting retreat all the way.
I just played on my right flank and retreated all infantries except one, which fought valiantly with the two armor units against the germans. In the end Trentdep destroyed my two armor units on that side and the infantry that stayed behind, but I killed three armor units and two infantries with very good dice against Trent's not good dice.

rearranging one infantry from the middle to then right side. And two infantry assaults were sufficient to exit four infantries. I only needed three because of lucky dice on an armor unit in the turn before that.

Good cards (to run for it) and even better dice decide this battle. See the percentages for yourself:

I would have to agree with Clorofila that this is not the best LooneyLlama scenario. Very many units offer very many choices, but the terrain is not as restrictive as usual in a LooneyLlama scenario. So its a run around (or away) shoot em up slugfest most of the time.

I can confirm now that the replays do not handle exiting units very well. The replay does not freeze on our replay, but it stops counting medals.

Sorry Trent, it was not a very exciting or long match. Hope we can have a better experience next time.

Yeah - Rather disappointing outcome of course .

Not sure which was more significant - the fact that I threw 24 MORE DICE for just TWO EXTRA KILLS, or the back to back Infantry Assaults. Then again, the fact that my low percentage was in part caused by over rolling flags, placing single figure units out of range in several instances probably contributed.

I think we disagree on that, but had I rolled something resembling "normal" dice, I really don't think the exiting troops would have been able to exit fast enough to keep up with the medal count - or at least the 4 medals would not have put you over the edge...

Perhaps it's just sour grapes on my part, but games ( and in this format, essentially a "match" ) being decided by a 17 point percentage dice swing strikes me as a rather large deficiency in the mechanics of the game.

And no - this is not something that can always ( or even often IMO ) be overcome by more strategic use of available cards and maximizing rolls. 59 vs 35 rolls looks bad enough, but even worse when one considers it represents a 68% increase.

Give me the two-pointer this round Droopy - I have *got* to be next in line for some decent dice...

Yes, the dice and cards are very fickle. That's just the nature of this game. Since we're playing at least 10 scenarios the dice should balance out. Also, the format only counts one side, not your typical game. Just hang in there and enjoy the company. I think we have a great group of guys who are good players and who make the games challenging. Hey, I'm 1-3 and they're my scenarios!

Col. Jeronimon, if you don't want to be busted down to buck private, I would, in the future, address GENERAL Eisenhower appropriately.

Col. Jeronimon, if you don't want to be busted down to buck private, I would, in the future, address GENERAL Eisenhower appropriately.

Quite right, I just was thinking of him as president when I wrote the post which was not until about ten year later.

@ Trent
The back to back infantry assaults would not have helped me if you had more average dice. You would have destroyed more of my units earlier so they could not fire at you or you cloud have moved on to other units and have gotten more kills in earlier. I just meant I did not need to destroy that last armor to get enough medals.

As your opponent I can say that I do not think you made any tactical mistakes. But, as a result of the cards and dice, the match was one sided and therefore not to much fun.
Let's hope the next time we meet each other it will be a more hard fought battle.

And a well meant "Good Luck" for your next battle. May you have incredible dice!
(But still fall one medal short of victory so the Allies take the victory. )

The first battle for the struggle for Sicily has been completed. The Allies(Looney) have prevailed over the Axis(Trentdep) 8-6. Great cards for the Allies was the deciding factor. In 21 turns, I got to throw 86 dice (over 20 more than Trentdep)! Even though the hit % was low, just the numerical superiority in dice thrown enabled the Allies to hold off the onslaught of the Axis forces. It was not a guarantee of victory, as it took a counterattack of a barrage to finish off the Tiger for the final 2 medals. Otherwise, defeat was a distinct possibility.

Van Voort has posted this, but I noticed it was on the other thread so just added it here for the record.

Another solid scenario Eric, many thanks.

Jim

Just out of interest .. are you keeping a record of the wins for each competitor, just so we know who of our own team is the current MVP (most valuable player) .. It may help the C-i-C's to allocate the 2 pointers each round to know who from their side is the player on fire!

It might be fun to have a 'competition within a competition' to see who from each side racks up the most wins as we go ... then you have an ultimate champion at the end !

Of course, this tourney is very much a team game, and i'm not proposing that changes at all ... but it's nice to also know who is the top gun amongst your peers !

Droopy killed 2 anti-tanks units with artillery and Tigers but my glorious tanks eliminated his Tigers and died(3-2 for Droopy after 11 turns).
Then there was a battle tanks near the aerodrome (4-4 after 19 turns).
I attacked in my left side with my infantry to take a light advantage (5 vs 4).
But , in turn 21 , Droopy attacked with his last tanks and killed 2 tank units near the aerodrome and near Gela . (6-5 for Droopy).

Droopy could take the objectives in the next turn but with lucky dice , I won 3 medals with shoots on one figure units and won the battle 8 -6 .
the statistics with dice are 48% vs 36%.....and made the difference.

it was very pleasant to play with Droopy on a very interesting scenario (thanks to Eric)

Just out of interest .. are you keeping a record of the wins for each competitor, just so we know who of our own team is the current MVP (most valuable player) .. It may help the C-i-C's to allocate the 2 pointers each round to know who from their side is the player on fire!

Well as C-i-C (of the enemy) I can tell you you are now at a 3-3 point spread ( In victories you score 2-3 because you got your 2 pointer.)

Droopy leads with 4-2 (also including a two pointer)

Clorofila stands at 4-2 also (also including a two pointer) But has yet to play his match this round. So could go over or under Droopy.

Clorofila and I have a hard time getting together, so we humbly ask your patience. If we hae a set date and time we will inform you how long your patience needs to be!

van Voort placed it in the other thread, so I duplicate the info in here:

van Voort 5/26 v 9/33 Jaykay

(there seems to be an error in the medal count for Jaykay, however, since Capture of Troina is resolved at 8 medals)

Lucky91 and I played tonight another beautiful and resourceful scenario by Eric "Looney Llama", with a final victory for the axis: 8-5. I managed to escape with 2 units and had a 3rd one ready.
After a beginning where dice smiled my way and cards were not so bad either (which gave me the upper hand), things got a little more balanced, but it was too late for the allies. Still, the medal result is deceiving, as Luc could have obtained an extra medal or two.
Final hit rates: Axis 61% 30% = overall 43% (53 dice); Allies 60% 35% 14% = overall 44% (52 dice).

OH,OH. By my count it is now 17-17 in games won. Do you have any strategic advice to stop the momentum of the Axis?

Lt. Col. LooneyLlama

Yes, win!

I have not played the scenario yet. (Was preoccupied training for other battlefields). This evening I will face sdnative at Troina. After that I might have some more advice concerning the layout of the fields around Troina.

I also have the count at 17 - 17, the Axis has to be stopped!
So Artimon and LooneyLlama, defend our honor as I will and fight to the bitter end. Never surrender, never say die, never give up!

Jim escaped a lot of units of the board. He started with the skiers because he thought they were engineers. If he had realised they were skiers I think he would have damaged me some more before retreating them.

Thanks for the fun games Jim and see you again on the battlefield!

This means I have the fresh shame of granting the germans their 18-17 lead in the tournament. (Time for a stiff upper lip and silent crying in my cup of tea. where nobody can sees it.)

This is not an easy scenario for the allies: German defensive positions are strong enough, there is artillery support, escaping possibilities... If the allied advance is not careful enough or well supported, axis will have the advantage.

There is one fundamental thing to me in every «complex» scenario, in particular those made by Eric: to write down the map's rules on a piece of paper. This time I forgot to do it and I made at least one mistake: while playing axis, I forgot this part "If ANY unit is on either of the two hexes it counts as one medal, irregardless if an enemy unit is on the other city hex." and abandoned the defense of one of the hexes for little or no advantage at all - although Luc was is no immediate position of taking that objective. Then, while rematching, I forgot the exact same thing - and this time, I could have played differently and possibly get a victory earlier.

I also made another mistake in the rematch: with only 1 medal to go for victory and another perfect shooting target at hand, I went for the German Infiltration unit («ski») with 3 rolls, forgetting that they can retreat up to 3 hexes for each flag. That was a waste of rolls and a very poor tactical choice.

So, important remark from my point of view: always be aware of the scenario's rules, even if you have to write them on paper and place it close to your keyboard.

Andre is right. You have to read the rules carefully and probably write them down. I know there are a lot of them but I think it makes the scenarios more interesting. Also, some of my rules do not correspond to the regular board game rules(for example, artillery should be able to fire at units in wadis with -1 dice, can't do it in online game). These 'online' rules(and there are a bunch of them) will be spelled out so everyone knows what's going on. I also tried to use badges to give the scenario a little more flavor. In the real battle of Troina there were German infiltration units that wrecked havoc behind the Allied lines. I thought the Finnish Ski Troop abilities were perfect to depict this. I thought I explained it in the rules adequately but maybe not.

Anyway, if you guys think there are too many rules let me know and I will tone them down for the following scenarios.